Well, I let myself be selfishly sad for a couple of seconds but now I am delighted that he has made the only sane decision.
There aren't too many "old school" players left in Pro Rugby and he will certainly be missed by his team mates and supporters alike.
Two things I will put forward as a measure of the man, a paragraph and a photo, as they can do him greater justice than I:

On The Road Again - Part Five
Tuesday, April 17, 2007 3:08pm
Road Warrior:

Canno got the final word from his doctor in Perth yesterday, then hopped on a plane and arrived in Sydney last night so he could tell his team-mates first thing this morning.
He wanted them to be the first to know, from the horse’s mouth.
And so, in the team-room at 8.30am, Canno told the boys he wouldn’t be wearing the jersey again.

Thanks for the memories Canno, you won't be forgotten around here mate

Mitchell loses a warrior and mate

Mitchell loses a warrior and mate

Rupert Guinness
Wednesday, April 18, 2007

It is a measure of how Brendan Cannon will be missed by Australian rugby that John Mitchell almost broke down in tears yesterday as the Western Force coach announced the hooker's immediate retirement due to injury.

When asked about his feelings about Cannon's decision, tears welled in the eyes of the hardened former All Blacks coach.

"The hardest thing in football is to leave the team. To lose a good mate is real tough," Mitchell said after Cannon confirmed his retirement at Manly, where the Force were based until today, when they travel to Canberra for Friday's game against the Brumbies.

"He often demonstrated how to go to the edge and get other mates to follow him in difficult times," Mitchell said. "He has always been one of those players who loves the physical contest. He always had physical presence … and made up for some skill deficiencies others probably possess, through attitude and [a] strong mindset."

Mitchell hopes Cannon, his first signing for the franchise that debuted last year, will return to the Force in some capacity.

"He is going to need space to contemplate a future," he said. "But he has so much to offer, whether that be in coaching, management or administration. He has an enormous [number] of skills. I hope the space he takes out of the game isn't for long."

The injury that finally retired the 34-year-old veteran of 42 Tests was sustained against the Crusaders two rounds ago. The hooker was left face-down on the ground after a scrum collapsed, until he taken off on a stretcher.

It was feared Cannon had re-aggravated the neck injury he sustained in a scrum against the Highlanders last year. That injury required surgery and a five-month spell, after which he fought his way back into the Wallabies team to tour Europe.

But Cannon, who still feels numbness in his left arm, said his decision to retire was made easy by a report from specialist Dr Quentin Malone on Monday.

"His opinion [was] that the injury I had sustained was career-ending," Cannon said. "On medical grounds, it was the only decision that could be made."

Cannon's immediate working future may be unclear but he will still have his hands full, as he and his wife Fiona are expecting the imminent arrival of their second child.

"Until three minutes ago, I still had the mindset of a player," Cannon said. "Even though [on Monday] I had confirmation that my career had ended, my energy and emotional attachment is still … as a player."

"So contemplating what will follow after today and the coming months is too early to say. But the priority for Fi and I is the arrival of bub number two."

Cannon admitted the scrum incident in the Crusaders game left an "indelible mark" on his confidence - a big call from someone who, besides being having sustained so many injuries, was nearly killed in a collision with a truck in 1993 in Brisbane.

"Any time time you sustain a serious injury as a player, a chink of your armour is removed," he said. "The game against the Crusaders stripped me pretty naked. Twelve months earlier, I was able to walk off after sustaining that injury against the Highlanders. But the one against the Crusaders was very traumatic."

Cannon, who also played for Queensland and NSW, admitted it was hard telling his teammates about his retirement at a team meeting called by Mitchell at 8.30am yesterday.

He spoke of his sadness in telling his colleagues that the experiences he had shared with them were now just memories.

"The experience of the dressing room, the thrill of the arena on game day, the energy on the team bus going to the stadium, the privilege to play with the Force. I have managed to represent my country, singing the national anthem …

Family man Cannon opts not to risk his neck

Family man Cannon opts not to risk his neck

Wayne Smith
April 18, 2007

BRENDAN CANNON's wife Fiona sat by his side in Perth on Monday when a medical specialist advised him he risked permanent damage to his spinal cord if he continued to play rugby.
The 42-Test Wallabies hooker smiled yesterday as he recounted that painful moment, just after announcing his immediate retirement from the game.
"Fi has been with me all the way and been so supportive, but that wasn't the only reason she went with me to the neurosurgeon," Cannon said. "She wouldn't have trusted me to go on my own, knowing that if the doctor had said one positive thing I would have played on."

Unfortunately for him, the Western Force and the Wallabies, the doctor, Quentin Malone, was positively gloomy in his assessment of Cannon's second serious neck injury in as many seasons.

"I advised Brendan that a return to rugby would have put his spinal function at risk and exposed him to further and possibly permanent spinal cord or nerve injury," Malone said.

Even for an optimist such as Cannon, there was nothing to do but to catch a late-night flight to Sydney to join the Force, not as a reinforcement for Friday's crucial Super 14 match against the Brumbies in Canberra, but to tell them in person of his decision to retire.

"No regrets," he said. "I've led a privileged existence as a rugby player and had some wonderful experiences, and the saddest thing is that those experiences won't continue.

"But I'm able to walk away with all my faculties intact ... all my physical faculties, at least. Not sure about my mental ones."

Force coach John Mitchell and chief executive Peter O'Meara don't appear to have any doubts about that side of things, offering Cannon a pivotal role at the club, either as a forwards coach or as an administrator.

For the moment, the 34-year-old intends simply to draw breath and enjoy the new challenges life will bring, not least the baby Fiona is expecting in the next three weeks.

The tributes poured in yesterday for Cannon, including one from the last person he would have expected to say something nice about him, Wallabies forwards coach Michael Foley.

Back in the late 1990s, when he was poised to become Australia's World Cup-winning hooker, Foley regarded his Queensland Reds understudy as a threat.

"I was a little unsure of myself," Foley recalled. "Canno was bigger than me and I could see how good he was going to be. I'm not proud of it, but if he was a hooker, he was the enemy.

"Brendan's always been the same guy but I've grown up a little bit and the greatest tribute a player can be given is to be told he was a great competitor. He was all of that, in my eyes, a real warrior. If ever you needed a tough pack for a Test, you'd start by picking Brendan Cannon."

It's not just Cannon's predecessor who thinks that but also his successor, Stephen Moore.

"Yeah, Canno used to regard me as a threat, too, but then we're all like that, us hookers," said Moore. "Canno has been my role model. On the field, he was the fiercest competitor. Off the field, he was an example, the way he carried himself. If I can look back at the end of my career and say I earned the same respect as him, I'll be a proud man."

Certainly Moore wants some good to come of Cannon's departure, and he called on the IRB to revisit its "crouch-touch-pause-engage" strategy at scrum time.

The "touchy-feely" approach was introduced to make scrums safer but Moore said it had the opposite effect.

"Most spinal injuries come from scrum collapses and there are many more collapses and repacks under these new laws," Moore said. "Seeing what happened to Canno sends shivers down my spine. And Steve Thompson (the England hooker in the 2003 World Cup final) has just been forced to retire, too, because of a neck injury."

Sadly, unless the game's powerbrokers seriously address the issue of scrum safety, more parents will do what Cannon is planning: to put his son in soccer.

More tributes to the great hooker, well deserved of course...
I agree that the engagement needs to be addressed again as it is obvious it isn't doing what it was intended to do, ie make scrums safer...